Kitty Welsh Dudics used oil on canvas in her piece “Garden Studies II.”

Contributed photo

Oil on canvas was used by Kitty Welsh Dudics to create “Unfurling.”

Contributed photo

Carmen Luna Martindale used watercolor to create “The Fruit Tree.”

Contributed photo

Kitty Welsh Dudics used oil on canvas in her piece “Garden Studies II.”

Contributed photo

CORPUS CHRISTI - Family influences are noticed mostly in appearances and mannerisms.

Sometimes children follow in the footsteps of their parents through more conscious choices such as where they live, hobbies they enjoy, and careers they develop.

The connections of mother-daughter team Kitty Welsh Dudics and Carmen Luna Martindale can be experienced through their paintings on view at the Art Center of Corpus Christi through April 30.

The influence began a generation before with Dudics' mother also working as an artist.

"Kathleen Welsh was an accomplished artist who also had the gift of putting her family first," Dudics said. "Growing up around her making art was a great heritage. It was what we did at our house, always a sketchbook in our hands."

Entering the gallery, the first recognizable similarity is the choice of colors. Both Dudics and Martindale select a vibrant, almost vibrating, palette. Both artists also play with abstract techniques such as using hot, bold hues such as an intense red for their backgrounds.

This technique encourages viewers to see the background as part of the foreground rather than using lighter, cooler colors which allow the background to appear as if it literally receding away from the viewer.

The interest in nature also is quickly realized among these works. Two paintings in particular have a clear visual dialogue, "Unfurling" by Dudics and "The Fruit Tree" by Martindale. In a future presentation, it would be wonderful to have the opportunity to view these works literally side by side to carefully view their strong similarities and graceful differences.

Oil on canvas was used by Dudics to create "Unfurling." With the composition divided horizontally in thirds, the lower third reveals lush flora in shades of blue, violet, and green. The middle third of the work is comprised mostly of the stalks of the playfully painted banana trees, with the upper third rendering the large leaves. The space between the trees is filed with tones of red.

Also using ranges of red to suggest a background as well as embracing a composition based on thirds, Martindale used watercolor to create "The Fruit Tree."

Instead of plants, Martindale uses various fruit from local flora and pots to construct the lower third of her work. Rather than visually divide her work in all horizontal planes, she divides the upper portion asymmetrically vertically.

The left side discloses a potted plant with its spindly branches and leaves painted with hues similar to Dudics' plants. The right side presents a burst of violet showing how watercolor as a medium can allow a controlled spontaneousness to reveal a spectrum within one color.

With Martindale now a parent herself, perhaps it is this controlled — or suggested through experience — spontaneousness of exploring every experience with care that she, too, will pass on to her family.

Today, Dudics is a professor of art at Del Mar College where she teaches painting. Dudics enjoys painting from life, often "en plein aire" (outdoors, on-site). She believes that nature is the artist's greatest teacher, with its infinite changes of light and atmosphere.

Martindale is an artist who enjoys painting, collage work, and mixed media. She has a degree in painting from Texas State University in San Marcos. She is interested in the relationship between animals and nature and is inspired by the natural elements around her in South Texas.

Elizabeth B. Reese, Ph.D. is an independent scholar, critic, consultant and a visiting professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Contact her at elizreese@gmail.com.